Record element for tabulating systems.



C. W. SPICER RECORD ELEMENT FOR TABULATING SYSTEMS.

APPLICAT ION FILED lULY l5. 19H.

Pater lted J an. 16, 1917.

MONTH.

LELCDQmLM-PLRNQU O 5 MAN JUB.NIJ.

PART. DP 'N HATE HUUHS Q -01 l t Leone a m Hon 1 c 1 5;

UNITED STATES PATEN OFFICE.

W. SPIGEB, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

nnconn ELEMENT r03 ranuta'rme SYSTEMS.

Toall whom it may concern: I I

a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Washington, in the District of -Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Imprevements in Record Elements for Tabulating Systems, of which the following is a specification, reference being'had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to record elements for tabulating systems, wherein the data thereon-is represented by punch holes which are also utilized for assorting and tabulat-. ing, and the particular type of record 'illus: II

trated herein relates to cost accounting systems wherein the individual account of each man or operator employed is noted upon the sameby suitable perforations and indicia.

The invention herein set forth is an improvement n the record card or element shown in Patent No. 677,214, "granted to Herman Hollerith, and dated June 25, 1901. These cost accounting cards or records may include groups or fields representing any suitable data for indicating the month,

'No. 945,236,:1nd dated J .4, 1910,

a similar field for the day, another field for the operators number, etc., and the location of the various fields or data maybe arranged as is most convenient for the particular method of accounting. Heretofore each field on the card or record hashad only the punch apertures indicating the month, the day of the month, the operators number, etc. With this type of card, as heretofore made, when stacked in the card cabinet the reading of the card was rendered extremely difiiciilt where the. numbers were high, for

instance, the operators number being 898 or any similar number where-the perforations would be arranged atthe bottom of the necessitate its removal icnce, to use a machine toverify the punchesor perforations, and obviates the use of such h x hesitation of Letters Patent. Application fled my 15, 1911. Serial 1a; 688,716.

Be, it known that I, CHARLES W. SPICER,

where Patented J an. 16, 1917.

Further objects of the invention will appear as the following specific description is read in connection withtheaocompanying drawing which forms apart of this application, and in which the figure is a plan :view of an ordinary cost accounting card commonly used in tabulating systems.

In the specific type of card illustrated herein there is shown a blank 1 having a plurallty of lines- 2 extending transversely thereacross and dividing thecard into eight separate Pgroups or fields 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. ach of these fields have a plurality of numbers 11 arranged therein as shown. In the field 3 thenumerals run from 1 to 12, while in the remainder of the fields the numerals run from O to 9., the zero marks in each of the fields from 4 to 10 aline longitudinally of the card with the numeral 3 in the field 3. At the head of each field suitable indicia is placed to indicate the mpnth, day, operators check number, job number, part number, operation number, rate per hour, and hours, the latter field indicating the time employed upon a particular job. The card is punched with a plurality of perforations which give the following information: The first field is punched at 6,

Indicating that the month is June, the second field is provided with a punch at 1, and at 9, indicating the 19th day, the third field is punched at 3, 6 and 9, indicating that the operators number is 369, the fourth field is punched at 2, 4, and the last two columns thereof are punched at 1, indicating that the job number is24l1, the fifth field has its first column punched with a 0, its

second column at 6, and its third column at 5, indicating that the number of the part is 65. The operation number isindicated in field 8 as 18, the punch in the first column being at 1 and in the second at 8, while the'rate per hour of the operator is indicated as fourteen cents, the punch of the first column in field 9 being at 1, and in the sec- 0nd column at 4. The last field indicates eight hours upon this particular job, the punches occurrm at 0 and B in the first and second-columns t ereof.

field such as 3 and 4 and all the other fields have a plurality of columns of numbers, only one column of which is shown in sections 3 and and the particular number which is 110 that the particular man or operator worked 7 It'will be clearly understood that each punched out of the column is the number s,

to which it relates, so that the result of the punches or perforations may be readily seen when the cards are filed in a card cabinet. This will avoid removing the cards from the cabinet, and where a job has consumed but a short time, for instance, four or five days,

the amount of time consumed upon any particular operation and the cost of such labor can be readily ascertained by inspecting the printing 12 at the 'top of the cards. Where the job has consumed a great length of time and there are consequently a large number of cards, they may be more readily selected from the cabinet by the filing number for running the .same through the tabulating machine. A large space has been shown at the right hand end of the card, which space can be utilized for other fields found to be necessary in carrying out the cost accounting system.

It is obvious that the printing of the individual indicia as is usually done, is not absolutely necessary for this type of card, sufiicient indication of the matter punched through being given by the result printed on the upper margin, the perforations in this case being only used when the data indicated thereby is compiledon the tabulating.

machine. The same principle can be applied to cards for census purposes, which are punched in columns, and which use symbols of various kinds to indicate the data required, in which case the symbol punched out would be indicated instead of the figures as shown. a I

. Having thus described my invention,.what I claim is:

l. A record element for tabulating systems divided into fields and having columns of indicia insaid fields, certain of said indicia indicated by .punch apertures in each.

column to produce a readable item, which punch apertures serve as a means for controlling the operation of a tabulating machine, and a printed item in each field, each character of the printed item being a duplicate of the character indicated by the punch aperture in the column with which'it is as: sociated and serving to readily identify the character indicated by said punch aperture.

2. A record element for tabulating systems having a plurality of columns of indicating indicia, certain of said indicia in each column indicated by a punch aperture to produce a single readable character, and

a single printed item or character arranged at the head of each column, said printed character being a duplicate of the character 

